BY S. ALISON CHABONAIS

Being With Flowers with Anthony Ward

The earth laughs in flowers,” says Emerson. Nature is the greatest artist of all, and floral sculptor Anthony Ward laughs and plays and dances with flowers every day, honoring the sacred space that flowers create. From Buddhist altars for the Dalai Lama to Lollapalooza rock concerts, he shows how to create floral works of art that open and enliven hearts.
Whatever the venue, “It’s all the same work,” says Ward. In the act of flower arranging, gardening, or simply observing nature’s embarrassment of riches, he sees how men and women “breathe in something real that moves them.” These amazing masterpieces of light irresistibly bring people to a sense of safety and inner peace. “A sunflower smiles at you,” he says. “How can you not smile back?”

Whatever the form, from soaring statuesque stems to cascading blossoms, floral apostles universally capture and stir our imagination. They inspire, banish fatigue, beckon prayer and heal wounds. The secret is to “get one’s self out of the way and let the flowers speak.”

Students of nature’s art, working with everything from curly willow to humble grasses, frequently find themselves in joy-filled here-and-now moments of compassion for creation. “Flowers are love manifest,” says Ward. We carry this re-found love into daily experience. When we pause to notice the beauty that earth gives us, we treat it better.

Such messages shine in Ward’s floral art and are finding support among spiritual teachers like the Dalai Lama, Maya Angelou, Ram Dass and Thich Nhat Hanh. As a professional dancer, Ward brings floral innovation to the performance art of musicians Bobby McFerrin and Michael Franti with Spearhead as he spontaneously creates flower sculptures on stage. Museums, conferences, and celebrities are enthusiastically embracing the possibilities of flowers, characterized by Mary Baker Eddy as “hieroglyphs of Deity.”

For information on Anthony Ward’s October workshop, “Being with Flowers, Floral Art as Spiritual Practice,”  at the Omega Institute in New York, call 800-944-1001 or visit www.eomega.org. For a picture gallery of the artist’s work, see www.BeingWithFlowers.com or call 212-539-2671.

Knitting as Spiritual Practice with Susan Jorgensen
 

An inner hush enveloped me when I picked up my knitting bag for the first time in many years,” says Susan Jorgensen. “Time slowed. I felt calmed and soothed.” Once engaged, she felt ineffably connected with the Divine. It’s a feeling she never wants to let go.

Jorgensen began knitting at age 8 at her grandmother’s knee. The craft’s simplicity still appeals to her. Now a grandmotherly type herself, she enjoys parlaying her profession as a spiritual director into a part-time shawl ministry, sharing the blessing with hundreds of givers and recipients. She’s co-author with Susan Izard of Knitting into the Mystery: A Guide to the Shawl Knitting Ministry.

In her knitting circles and retreats, “Every story you hear about how someone learned to knit, or a garment somebody knit for them, touches your heart,” she says. It’s a universal artistry that connects us with our roots, our ancestors, and each other. “It takes us to a place of wordless connection.”
 Threads of hope and healing weave through each shawl as ministering hands knit unconditional love into every stitch. Messages range from comfort to celebration.

Though highly tactical, contemplative knitting can open a window to look at what’s real. Jorgensen likens it to an expression of one’s inner life, “seeing where your stitches are, and where they are not.”

Accessing one’s spiritual life may come through a repeated mantra like peace-joy-love as a knitter works the yarn in a slide-in, loop-over, pull-through movement. In meditation, a wandering mind can be refocused simply by returning to the pattern. Jorgensen relates that when she found herself knitting with a broken arm in a cast, she knew her body “was being knit together in the process.”

Whatever one’s need, in sickness or in health, in want or in wealth, draping such a gift over another’s shoulders wraps us in warmth, envelops us in love, and honors the gift that we are.

For information on Susan Jorgensen’s September workshop, “Knitting into the Mystery,” at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, call 800-944-1001 or visit eOmega.org. For information on the Shawl Ministry founded by Janet Bristow and Vicky Galo, visit www.ShawlMinistry.com.